Governor Jang is Ripe for International Criminal Court

By

Pindar G. Mshelia, Maiduguri

pindarmishelia@yahoo.com

 

 

It is unfortunate to note that things have not changed much in Plateau State since the first crisis in 2001 despite the appeals by many Nigerians. Rather, each side seems to be digging in. On the one hand, peace became an opportunity to prepare for the next round of violence while, on the other, the crisis themselves granted each group the chance to revenge previous atrocities, defend itself against fresh ones, or commit new assault that would serve as the fuel which will sustain the flames of the next crisis.

 

It is natural for people to differ, clash, fight and even go to war. Conflict is an inevitable part of human society and an affirmation of its history. Without it the weak will not get justice, people will not understand one another better and society will not attain progress and lasting peace. The United Nations – with its structures, charters, successes and failures – is a product of conflict, for example. Even here at home, people in many communities have evolved from conflicts with a better understanding of one another and are therefore more yielding to cooperation for a lasting peace than in their pre-conflict times. Kano and Kaduna are the best examples to cite. Muslims and Christians in the two states that have witnessed bloody episodes during the last decade are today standing side by side in the fight against ethnic and religious bigotry. They have come out of the conflicts stronger in mind, better united as a people and more prosperous economically.

 

My concern in this piece – and definitely the concern of every patriotic Nigerian today – is why Plateau State has failed to pull itself out of the vicious circle of violence and narrate to the nation, as other states did, the success story of a new dawn characterized by peace, tolerance and prosperity. I was amazed at the level of prosperity displayed in Kaduna Market when I visited it three weeks ago. That would not have been possible without peace. That is not so in Jos, the capital of Plateau State. Its ultramodern market – the first of its kind in West Africa – is lying in ruins since it was pulled down by the forces of envy over eight years ago.

 

The recent conflict has given the world the reasons why bloody crisis on the Plateau is running unabated. It has unmasked the faces of the actual people behind it. From the various comments on the crisis, it is clear that the nation is becoming impatient with these elements. With this, I strongly think, we are likely to break the ice; we have likely witnessed the last scene. There is a consensus that the culprits be identified and punished accordingly. This is the commitment given by the Acting President, Goodluck Jonathan, the call of America and United Nations, the plea of community leaders and the wish of all Nigerians. Allowing the culprits in the past conflicts to go Scot-free has been the main reason for their recurrence according to virtually all commentators.

 

It is surprising to see how the horror of the crime committed has made people to abandon their former positions. They are now confessing that there is a different agenda other than what is on their tables. The Chairman of the Christian Association of Nigeria in Plateau State, Archbishop Kaigama, has consistently stood his ground this time around, maintaining that the conflict is not religious, meaning it is not motivated by religion. That strongly suggests that ethnicity is the principal drive. His counterpart in Kano, Bishop Ramson Bello was more specific in his indictment. When asked why, unlike in Kano and Kaduna States, the crises in Jos have continued unabated, he said: "The crises in Kano and Kaduna were abated because their governments were interested in stopping them…" (Translated from the report in Hausa). So while the first cleric was implicating ethnicity as the motivator crisis, the second is blaming the role of the Plateau State government for sustaining it.

 

The analysis of both clerics has been confirmed by the nature and scale of the atrocities committed. It is now acknowledged by many human rights groups in and outside Nigeria that the crimes committed at some scenes in the conflict are genocidal. The first one that shocked the world was that of Kuru Karama but there were many others at Forom, Gero, Sabongidan Kanar, etc. In all these scenes, Muslims – regardless of their age, gender or condition of health – were massacred by people of the predominant Berom ethnic group in what is clearly seen as a systematic campaign to exterminate the former from the area. Human rights groups and reporters from international media organizations have confirmed this, just as did the endless narrations of victims and other evidences in their possessions. The nature of the crime is beyond what any religion could tolerate, hence the dissociation of Christianity from it by many of its clerics. The scenes of slaughtered babies, children, women and old men – as old as 96 years – as well as armless youths abound in every location. This is primitivism at its peak, not religion, certainly. We will come back to the crime in a short while. Meanwhile let us dwell on its category, genocide, in an effort to establish our final argument about the culpability of the Governor.

 

The desire to live in an environment cleansed of other groups has haunted man whenever he is confronted with social and economic problems which he is unable to solve. It is habitual to lay the blame on the other group and dream that once it is removed the problem will be over. When the other group is targeted and measures are taken to destroy it in whole or in part, then the ingredients of genocide are complete. So preponderant is this error in human history that the United Nations made a provision against it among its conventions, declaring it as "a crime under international law, contrary to the spirit and aims of the United Nations and condemned by the civilized world."

 

Article 2 of the Convention on Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (CPPCG) defines genocide as "any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such: killing members of the group; causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group; deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life, calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part; imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group; [and] forcibly transferring children of the group to another group." (Quotations from Wikipedia)

 

We have had our fair share of ethnic and religious conflicts in this country but I do not think any of them qualifies to be called genocide other than certain actions that were taken during the civil war, principally when the Igbo were subjected to starvation as calculated policy by the Yakubu Gowon led Federal Government following the advice of late Chief Obafemi Awolowo.  The other conflicts in various parts of the country in which people of some ethnic groups were targeted were spontaneous with no participation of government. The only one which took the path of genocide before it was stopped was the killings of northerners and Igbo in the Southwest by Afenifere backed Oodua Peoples' Congress. But to be fair, it is very doubtful if those killings were a policy of the Obasanjo administration or that of any of the governments in the Southwest. As a result they were stopped – of course after many lives have been lost, unfortunately – because government worked hard to stop them.

 

In Plateau State the situation has been different during the past eight years. We are all aware of the historical, religious, social and political factors that have been setting the two groups apart for several decades now. It only required hiring a girl by a group of armed men to insist on passing through a Friday congregation of Muslims to provoke the first crisis in 2001. From then, the state government has consistently sided with one group – the natives or so-called "indigenes" – at the expense of Muslim ethnic groups which it officially designate as "settlers". It has also been the official policy of government to deny the latter group the right to win any executive position, while making concession on legislative seats. The chairmanship of Jos-North local government became so contentious that for years its elections could not hold. And when it did hold in 2008, their rigging was used as a pretext to ignite another crisis.

 

Also, the State government has always blocked any effort to bring perpetrators of the conflict to order. At a point, due to the complicity of the State government under its former Governor, Joshua Dariye, the Obasanjo administration had to declare a state of emergency in the state. That measure stopped the circle of killings but it did not break it. The new governor, David Jonah Jang, who is well known for his ethnocentric views, confirmed the fears of escalation. He came with the resolve of "dealing with the Hausas." After the 2008 conflict, he stubbornly resisted the involvement of the Federal Government in conducting any investigation into the crisis. Why would he be so recalcitrant State official?

 

There could be only one answer in this world: he has something to hide. The utterances of his officials clearly portray his siding with the perpetrators who are from his ethnic and religious group. Otherwise, if the other group were the culprits, Jang or anyone else in his position will gladly welcome the Federal Government's Panel before which he will submit endless evidences against them. Blocking justice is among the standard responses of perpetrators of genocides. It was the language of Milosevic, of Rwandan Hutu leaders, and now of the Sudanese leader, al-Bashir, to mention just a few.

 

More than siding with the perpetrators, the crime of genocide that was committed in the last crisis shows clearly that the governor is indeed an accomplice if not the brain behind it. Genocide, by its very nature, is an organized crime that will succeed only with government involvement. One can say virtually all genocides in history are sponsored by governments. The same thing is taking place in Plateau. In virtually every village that Berom youths went to massacre Muslim Hausa-Fulani, they said they were sent by the Governor. This has been confirmed by the testimonies of victims from different places. That was also the answer given to the Pastor at Kuru Karama who tried to stop the youths from exterminating the Muslim population of the village. He was beaten by the youth, tied to a tree and told, "We are sent by the Governor".

 

And what the youths are saying makes a lot of sense. The resources required to execute genocide can only come from a government. Who will pay for the logistics, the weapons and the youths required to execute the crime? Who has the power to subdue any opposition especially from community and religious leaders? Who will ensure the propaganda of hate speech that will ensure the demonization of the target group and instigate offensive? Who will give the culprits the assurance that they will go free? Who is big enough to cover them? In fact, who will contemplate the risk of genocide other than those in authority? Only government can do these.

 

However, Governor Jang and his kinsmen are mistaken to think that they can get away with this in the 21st Century. I believe that if the Biafran war had taken place these days, Nigerian leaders will not contemplate starvation as a weapon in war because they know that the International Community will not allow them go free. Today, there is greater support among nations for the International Criminal Court. When General Krstic was conducting the genocide of Muslim Bosnians at Srebrenica in 1995, neither him nor his master, Milosevic, thought that the long arm of justice will one day reach them. They were counting on the support or complacency of the West since the crime they were committing was against Muslims. However, the very West stood its ground that they be brought to justice and, behold, Serbia finally handed over its war time leader, Milosevic, to the ICC. The brutal Radovan Karadzic ran, but he could not run forever. He too was apprehended.

 

Mohammad al-Bashir thought the ruling of the Court was a ruse. He held a rally boasting that it is not tenable. But since then, not only is al-Bashir restricted to his Sudan, unable even to visit Arab and Muslim countries, he has substantially backed away from inflicting his barbaric acts on our African brothers in Darfur. I have no doubt that a new Sudanese President will handover al-Bashir as Serbia handed over Milosevic.

 

Governor Jang and other perpetrators of war crimes on the Plateau can now enjoy the comfort of their offices and reassurance of their kinsmen. However, the long arm of justice will eventually reach them. They are nowhere close in station of arrogance and viciousness to the names we mentioned before. Let the ongoing collection of evidences be completed and submitted before the ICC. Once the petitions appear credible, the Court will set in motion the machinery that will ultimately bring them to justice. It is then they will realize that there is no rock on the Plateau that can hide them, just as Serbia became too small to hide Karadzic. Nigeria, moreover, is not a country that will resist any international pressure to handover Jang. Charles Taylor, despite the promises, was eventually apprehended even though he tried to run away to the Cameroons, and handed over to the Court. There he is, facing justice. Poor Taylor!

 

I think we Nigerians must realize that we are not only citizens of Nigeria, subdued by its oppressive and corrupt judicial and political system, but also citizens of the world. Our country is a signatory to the UN charters that guarantee us the right to seek justice beyond our borders. We must be ready to employ those avenues in order to check the injustice meted on us at home. If Governor Jang and his gang are committed to atrocities and "uncivilized" behaviour, other Nigerians must prove that they are committed to justice and civilization. We must rise to seek justice for all the victims of this genocide. They do not have a voice. Their relatives who survived may be too weak to walk the tenuous path of justice. We are the voice of the former and the strength of the latter.

 

I strongly believe that the Plateau State Governor, David Jonah Jang, is ripe for the ICC. I do not believe in the promise of punishing the culprits made of the Federal Government because it has never kept any. Moreover, with an absentee president and a vice president whose acting position is a subject of legal debate, I cannot see the courage to apprehend any wayward governor. In fact, this might have informed the timing of the genocide. Also, no traditional ruler should plead with the victims to forsake their right to seek redress at the ICC in exchange for empty peace talks with the Plateau State government. Condescending from justice will only allow a recurrence. I know that raising the possibility of his prosecution before the ICC from various quarters in and outside Nigeria is sufficient to dampen the future atrocious plans of the governor. But this hindsight must not extinguish the right of the dead to justice. Nigeria must toe this line in order to nip in the bud the genocidal thirst of other Jangs who think genocide is an answer to their inability to provide good governance to their people.

 

I wrote this article with a heavy heart. As a Christian from Biu in Southern Borno State I belong to a family that is mixed with both Muslims and Christians. Among my immediate ancestors were two Muslims who went to Plateau for mining activities during the colonial times. They have stayed there with their families and their descendants have maintained contacts with their roots over the years. I have lost eight of them in the present conflict at Kuru Jenta. It is a pain I cannot swallow without crying out. The truth, I believe, should be told and Nigerians should be united in protecting the rights of individual citizens regardless of their religious or ethnic identities. May the Almighty Lord, our Saviour, make this crisis to be the last of its kind and may he make peace reign in our hearts and our society. Amen.

 

All correspondences to pindarmishelia@yahoo.com